Warhammer 40k: Dark Millenium no longer an MMO following layoffs

THQ's money problems are continuing to cause issues for the company's development teams. The trickle down has now reached Vigil Games, who are working on Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium. 79 full-time employees were laid off at the studio, and the game's scope has been downgraded from an MMO to a single-player title with multiplayer elements.

Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, made the following announcement earlier today:

"As previously announced, we have been actively looking for a business partner for the game as an MMO. However, based on changing market dynamics and the additional investment required to complete the game as an MMO, we believe the right direction for us is to shift the title from an MMO to a premium experience with single and multiplayer gameplay, robust digital content and community features."

Relic Games, developers of the Company of Heroes and Dawn of War franchises, was also the victim of recent layoffs -- 39 more full-time employees. They, assumedly, are continuing work on an unannounced title. Their latest release, Space Marine, received lukewarm critical reception and reportedly sold 1.2 million copies globally.

While it's unfortunate we'll never see what Dark Millenium could have been, perhaps scaling back the scope of the game will turn it into a new, concentrated experience. Something we've never seen before. The least we can do is hope for the best for those at Vigil and Relic, and those who have hopefully moved on to bigger and better projects.

Damn, would it not be more humane to sell off the developers that THQ have under their wing than lay them off to the point of liquidation?

I mean of course no matter what THQ do it will look bad but if they keep this up then anything related to THQ will be gone or suffer a lot of losses to the point that they will be crawling to rebuild themselves

People, lets be honest here. We can't blame piracy or used game sales for this. It was apparent, during the last few years, that the quality of the games that THQ is putting out was diminishing. So, they have no one to blame but themselves.